VP Harris on vaccinations: ‘We gotta do better in Nevada’
Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday urged Nevadans to get vaccinated as the state grapples with a recent rise of COVID-19 cases.
“I talked to Gov. (Steve) Sisolak and, frankly, we gotta do better in Nevada, guys,” Harris said to a capacity crowd at the Carpenters International Training Center. “We gotta do better in Nevada.”
Harris was in Las Vegas to tout the successes of President Joe Biden’s administration and push the positives of a bipartisan plan on infrastructure spending. Others in the administration, including the president, have made similar stops across the country in what the White House is calling the “America’s Back Together” tour.
The vice president’s visit to Las Vegas comes two days after Sisolak said the state will ask for more help from the federal government to fight the rising number of COVID-19 cases, stagnating vaccination rates and increasing threat from the delta variant. As of Friday, Nevada had the highest case rate in the nation.
Harris said the majority of people who were recently hospitalized with COVID-19 or who died of the disease were not vaccinated.
“So, help us to urge folks and say to them, ‘Look, it’s time to roll up your sleeve and get the shot,’” Harris said. “And if you already have, let’s talk to somebody else we know who hasn’t and let them know now is the time to get this done.”
During the roughly 15-minute address, Harris told the crowd that Americans are not only celebrating Independence Day this weekend but the country’s resilience. She touted the country’s job growth and wage increases for workers and the administration’s work on COVID-19 relief.
Now, the administration is turning its focus to passing a bipartisan infrastructure plan worth $1.2 trillion. She said jobs created by the plan would be “good union jobs.”
“It would be the largest long-term infrastructure investment in nearly a century in our country,” she said. “It would be even bigger than the Hoover Dam.”
Harris landed at McCarran International Airport about 11:15 a.m. and was greeted on the tarmac by Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., and Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev.
The vice president’s visit to Las Vegas, which lasted about 2½ hours, included a tour of the training facility for United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America members. She was joined on the tour by Rosen, Horsford, Lee and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.
Both senators and representatives offered brief remarks to the audience at the training center before Harris delivered her speech Saturday afternoon.
But not everyone welcomed the vice president’s message.
Republican National Committee spokesman Keith Schipper in a statement blamed the Biden administration for Nevada’s unemployment rate, high rate of COVID-19 cases and high gas prices. The estimated jobless rate in Nevada as of May was 7.8 percent.
“The only thing Nevadans want to hear from Kamala Harris this weekend is how she and Joe Biden intend to address their failures,” he said.
Harris said this weekend Americans will celebrate coming back together, but next week, it’s back to work building the country up. She said she is confident that it will get done.
“Because as tough as this year has been, and last year was, America is tougher,” she said.
Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter.